The Healing Powers of Pie
by sunne
Summary: He wanted out and to have her back. She wanted nothing to do with him. Written for the QLFC. Round 1.
**Author's Note:** This is written for Round 1 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. I am the Falcon's Seeker. My prompt is to write about your chosen Death Eater visiting or being visited by someone.

The Healing Powers of Pie

Evan Rosier stepped into the small cafe full of muggles. He glanced around for a moment, found an empty table, and sat down. Nervously, he rapped his fingers against the table, his eyes darting around. The smell of coffee and brewing tea surrounded him, and the dull roar of muggles talking filled his ears. It was early morning, and people rushed in and out of the door, needing their tea or caffeine before heading off to work.

A woman approached the table, a pad of paper in hand. "Mornin', love. What can I get you?"

Evan looked up at her and blinked. Her blond hair piled atop her head and the pale blue eyes looking down at him brought up strong feelings of familiarity in Evan. She smiled at Evan, ready to take his order.

"Do you need a menu?" she asked when Evan hesitated and reached over to grab one from an empty table.

"No." Evan shook his head, but the woman set the menu down on the table anyway.

"Well, take a look at that."

He glanced at the door, his fingers tapping out a rhythm on the wooden table top. "I'm waiting for someone."

"Oh, alright. I'll be back later, then." She turned, but hesitated. "You sure you don't want a coffee or something to get you started? Tea? A slice of pie?"

His mother had died years ago, and Evan seldom thought of her, knowing emotions such as love were seen as weaknesses to the Dark Lord. In this muggle woman, the softness and gentleness Evan remembered of his mother shone through. She smiled down at him. Evan wondered if she had any idea who he was and what he was capable of.

"No, I'm fine."

"Let me know if you need anything." She smiled and walked away to tend to another table.

A bell across the cafe chimed, and Evan turned. A young woman entered the cafe, and the sight of her made Evan's heart skip a beat and his hands tremble. He watched as her eyes skimmed over the muggles in the cafe and came to rest on him. Old and almost painful longing rose up in him, and it hurt to see the loathing and contempt on her face. She wove her way through the tables and sat down across from him.

"Evan." She shrugged out of her coat and left it draped over the chair beside her.

It had been over a year since he had set eyes on Marlene McKinnon, and he found that she still had power over him, over his emotions, over his heart. He looked her in the eye-eyes he had grown accustomed to getting lost in long ago-and trailed his gaze down her body. She looked exactly the same as the last time he'd seen her, and it sent a shiver through his body.

"So, a muggle cafe," she said and crossed her arms. She looked out the window at the gray morning. A red double-decker bus trundled by as people rushed past on the sidewalk. "Never thought I'd see you among so many muggles." She looked back at Evan.

"I needed to see you." He wanted to reach out for her hands but knew the gesture would be unwanted. Instead, he fiddled with a corner of the menu that had become dog-eared. "This was the only place where I knew we wouldn't be recognized."

A businessman walked past their table, briefcase in hand. Marlene glanced at him and turned back to Evan. "Should I be concerned?"

Evan frowned. "I'm not going to go on a murdering rampage, if that's what you're worried about."

"I don't know, really." She leveled a hard look at him. "I don't really know you, do I? The Evan I thought I knew doesn't actually exist."

He winced. "I'm still me, Marlene."

Marlene laughed harshly and shook her head. She turned to look out the window again and stared at her reflection in the glass. Evan noticed the fatigue in her gaze and the shadows darkening the skin beneath her. She looked haunted. The war was affecting him as much as it was her, and he wondered if she felt as lost and alone as he did. He reached out and wrapped his fingers around her hand.

"Marlene, please, just listen to me." Evan pulled gently to get her to turn back to him. "The Evan you fell in love with is still in here." He pressed his hand against his chest. "I've made mistakes in my life, but loving you was never one of them."

She pulled her hand out of his with an air of disgust. "You're a Death Eater. I could never love you."

Her words served as a knife in his chest, and Evan gritted his teeth against the sharp pain. He sat back in his chair. "I'm done with being a Death Eater," he said softly, his head turned away. The previous year and all its horrors raced through his mind. "I want out."

Marlene snorted and regarded Evan with disbelief. "That's rich. And after everything James and Sirius were prepared to do for you a year ago? They bent over backwards for you."

Evan clenched his jaw, the pain in his chest escalating as Marlene unearthed the past. Out of everybody he had betrayed, he knew Marlene was the only one who would understand why he did what he had to do. "You know what my father was like, Marlene. I didn't have a choice."

"You didn't have to become a Death Eater, Evan, but you did. James and Sirius were prepared to risk their lives for you, but you betrayed us all. Now you have to live with that."

He turned back towards her, his hands curled into tight fists. "I can't." Evan closed his eyes as his breaths came in short bursts. "Don't you understand that? I can't keep living like this."

He had never been a violent person, despite the efforts of his father. The faces of each person that Evan had been forced to torture at the insistence of the Dark Lord haunted his dreams each night. It had long been more than Evan could tolerate.

"Go to Dumbledore," she said, her voice carefully controlled and leveled as she reached for her coat. "You know he'll help you."

He stood as Marlene went to stand to put her coat on. "Help me, Marlene. I can't handle this."

Marlene said nothing and avoided looking at Evan.

"I still love you." Evan wrapped his hand gently around her arm. "Don't you still love me?"

Stilled by his touch, Marlene squeezed her eyes shut. "No," she whispered and pulled her arm from his grasp. "I'm with Sirius now, and he loves me."

Heartache overwhelmed him and he sat down heavily. "Do you love him?"

Marlene regarded him coldly. "That is none of your business." She finished putting her coat on and struggled to button it as her fingers shook. "I have to go."

She turned to leave but spared him a final glance. "Please, just talk to Dumbledore, Evan. I can't help you, but he can."

Then she was gone, out the door and out of sight.

Evan leaned his elbows on the table and rested his head in his hands. He hated the burning behind his eyes, the weakness it showed. Sniffling, he turned his head to look out the window at the clouds that had parted and the sunlight shining down. Grumbling, Evan turned away from the window.

"I know a broken heart when I see one."

A piece of pecan pie was placed down on the table in front of him.

The waitress had returned with an understanding smile. "It's on the house, love."

Evan stared at the piece of pie as a fork was offered to him. He took it and looked up at the muggle woman in confusion. Why was she showing him kindness? People like him didn't deserve kindness.

"Don't underestimate the healing powers of pie." She studied his slumped form and placed a hand on his shoulder. "There's nothing in the world that it can't heal." The woman gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze-the gesture not unlike one a mother would give her son-before moving on to take an order from a nearby table.

Evan watched her work for a few moments as the morning rush died down. He looked down at the piece of pie before him and took a bite. Pecan had always been his favorite, and the soft, sweet filling soothed him. He closed his eyes and sighed. The hollowness inside his heart created by old and painful love ached, but it was dulled slightly by the sensation created by the open kindness of a muggle woman.


End file.
